


The Cage is Full

by TheDancingDoctor



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, F/M, Gen, I mean who wouldn't?, M/M, Miscarriage, Multi, Other, and abigail is a freshman, and all of will graham's stationary has dogs on it, and hannibal and bedelia can barely keep their hands off each other, bedelia and hannibal are basically mean girls, bedelia and hannibal think they're too good for public school, bedelia suspicious from the get go that will graham gonna steal her man, jack is principal, mentions only tbh, the nightmare stag and his ice queen, they all hate everything
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-29 01:06:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7664332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDancingDoctor/pseuds/TheDancingDoctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal High School AU- Bedelia and Hannibal are basically the perfect prom king and queen couple, until Will Graham comes along and they begin to have lunch together. Things are fine until Will and Bedelia begin to fight for Hannibal's attention.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The New Boy

**Author's Note:**

> so this first chapter refers to a miscarriage and the aftermath. other than that, please enjoy.

Bedelia smiled up at Hannibal, her back against her locker and her arms wrapped around his neck. She couldn't be happier that she was in a relationship with the nicest, most popular, and sexiest man in the school. He had girls, and boys, flocking to have dates with him, but he was all hers.   
Hannibal put his hands on her waist before running them down her body to the hem of her skirt before slipping his hands underneath and upwards towards her lace panties.   
"Nervous baby?" he whispered into her ear.   
"No, but we shouldn't do this right now, we're at school," she scolded him, "it's rather rude, don't you think?"  
Hannibal removed his hands from under her skirt and placed them back on her hips. "Well, when you put it like that. You know I can't tolerate rudeness."  
Bedelia smiled, "let's get to class darling or we'll be late."  
Hannibal reached up and took hold of her hands, removing them from around his neck. "You're right." He let go of one of her hands and pressed a kiss to her lips.   
He reached down and picked up his knapsack before half-leading his girlfriend to their English class.

Once they arrived, Hannibal pulled Bedelia's chair out for her and pushed it in when she sat down before taking his own seat. Bedelia put her hand on his neck and pulled his lips to hers, kissing him briefly and yet, filled with the passion she had for him.   
When they broke apart, Hannibal's eyes were drawn to the door where a dark haired boy of medium size was standing. His hair was messy, his glasses were askew, and he looked completely unsure of where he was. Hannibal had never seen him before at the school.   
Bedelia turned and her eyes narrowed when she saw the boy. Upon looking at him, there was instantly something she didn't like. She saw him catch Hannibal's eye and wanted to punch the boy's stupid face when he smiled. Hannibal was hers, and she had no reason to be jealous. She was, after all, the prettiest and smartest girl in school, Hannibal was the most handsome and smartest boy in the school. They were a perfect match for one another.   
Just looking at this new boy, she knew that though it was highly unlikely that he would pose a threat to her relationship, he would have to be eliminated somehow.   
He looked around and waved at Beverly, Jimmy, and Brian, all of whom returned his wave. He walked across the classroom and sat down beside Beverly. Bedelia snorted lightly, this new kid could never be a threat.   
At that moment Hannibal and Bedelia's attention was drawn back to the door when their names were called out by Alana Bloom and Margot Verger, two of their very good friends.   
When they came to sit down, Alana started speaking immediately. "The new kid here is in this class, have you seen him yet?"   
Bedelia snorted and nodded. "You'd think that when someone is new, they'd try a little harder to be liked."  
"He's quite nice, Crawford asked me to make sure he's adjusting," Alana said, "but what do you mean Bedelia?"  
"It looks like he hasn't brushed his hair in 3 days, hasn't shaved in 5, and if this school wasn't scent-free, he'd probably be wearing some gross cologne that's super cheap with a ship on the bottle, like Margot's brother does," Bedelia said, her nose wrinkled in disgust, "No offense Margot."  
"I'm not offended. I complain about Mason just as much as other people do."  
"Just didn't want to be rude," she said with a small smile. "I don't think he's ugly or anything, I just think that if he tried a little bit harder, I might like him more."  
"He does have excellent bone structure from what I can see," Hannibal agreed, "perhaps we can invite him to have lunch with him and maybe, if we like him, we can help him out. But you need to stop snorting Bedelia, it's so unlike you."  
"See girls? Hannibal agrees with me. I'm sure a lot of girls find the scruffiness cute, but he won't be a boy for long. It takes me an hour every morning to get ready. It wouldn't take him half that time," Bedelia said, "What's his name Alana?"  
"Will Graham. Why?"   
Bedelia stood up. "I'm going to ask if he'd like to have lunch with us."  
"Okay, but don't be your typical ice queen self? Try to be nice?" Margot suggested.   
"Hannibal thinks I'm nice," she said sweetly.   
"Not all the time dearest. I know how nice you can be, not everyone else does," he replied, "especially not a new student."  
Bedelia smiled innocently and stalked off to the other side of the room where the new boy was sitting with Beverly, Jimmy, and Brian.   
"Hello," she said, "I'm Bedelia, you must be Will."  
He nodded lightly, his messy hair falling into his eyes. "I am. Nice to meet you."  
"Nice to meet you as well. I'm friends with Alana, and my friends and I were wondering if you would like to join us for lunch today," she offered, "your friends are welcome as well. We just thought it might be nice for you to meet some more new people. Good to have allies in this place."  
He looked at his other friends who shrugged lightly. They were fine with Alana and Margot, but did not like Hannibal and Bedelia. They barely knew Abigail, the freshman they all hung out with, who was sure to carry on the reign of the nightmare stag and his ice queen when they were gone. So when it came to eating with that group, they were relatively neutral. Will looked back at Bedelia and nodded with a small smile.   
"Great! We'll see you in the cafeteria, you won't be able to miss us," Bedelia said, smiling at the group before strutting back to her own. Sitting down, she pressed a kiss to her boyfriend's cheek. "All done. I invited all of them. It might make him feel a little bit more comfortable around us."  
"Until he finds out that they hate us Bedelia," Hannibal muttered.   
"Who could hate us Hannibal? It's not a smart thing to do."  
"No, it isn't. But Brian Zeller, Jimmy Price, and Beverly Katz don't have any good feelings for either of us," he reminded her.   
Bedelia waved her hand lightly and turned her attention to their teacher.   
Hannibal slipped his hand under the table and into Bedelia's lap where her hands were, grasping one of them. He loved her, of course he did, she was smart and beautiful, but there was something about this new boy that intrigued him.   
Bedelia looked down and smiled, seeing the glint of her ring on the hand that was being grasped by Hannibal's. Of course she had nothing to worry about. Hannibal was hers, and no twitchy new kid was ever going to ruin what they had.

At lunch, the group was sitting in the cafeteria, Bedelia watching Hannibal intently as he talked until Will Graham and his group arrived.   
"May we still eat with you?" Beverly asked, almost glaring at Bedelia's hand on Hannibal's.   
"Of course. The invitation was given and we don't pull out on offers," Hannibal said with a small smile.   
Just like you don't pull out of your girlfriend, Beverly thought, a small smile on her face at her ability to not voice what she thought.   
"Will, I don't think you've met Abigail Hobbs yet. She's a freshman," Alana said.  
Will shook his head and looked at the girl with long, dark hair and freckles. "Nice to meet you."  
"Nice to meet you too Will," Abigail replied with a small smile.   
Will, Beverly, Jimmy, and Brian all pulled up chairs and sat down with the rest of the group.   
"If we're planning on doing this often, we may need to get a larger table," Beverly joked.   
Bedelia shrugged. "I'll just make the football team give us theirs. They're losers anyways, couldn't win a game to save their lives."  
"Guess it's good you're not a cheerleader Bedelia," Beverly commented with a smile. She didn't like the football team or the cheerleaders either. They treated the nerds like crap, even though she could kick all of their asses. Technically, Hannibal's group counted as nerds, but they were treated better than the rest of their kind. Probably because of how they dressed and acted.   
"Those girls are so shallow. Don't care about anything but how they look and dieting. I like to focus on school, and Hannibal of course," she said with her usual ice queen smile as she grasped Hannibal's hand. She picked up her bottle of lemonade and took a sip.   
Beverly picked up her Coke can, not even thinking about disagreeing with the school ice queen, she was right. Even though she knew Bedelia, Alana, Margot, and Abigail cared very much about how they looked. Yet, she couldn't call Bedelia a hypocrite, at least she and her friends didn't stand at their lockers and in the bathrooms fixing their hair and makeup all the time.   
It was then that Will noticed a diamond ring on the ring finger of Bedelia's left hand. His brow furrowed in confusion, and he decided to ask. "That's a nice ring Bedelia, is it a purity ring?"  
Bedelia raised her eyebrow and tried to not laugh. "No, it isn't. It's a promise ring from Hannibal. He gave it to me last year, after my miscarriage," she explained.   
Will's eyes went wide before he shook himself back to reality. "I'm sorry to hear that."  
Bedelia smiled lightly at him. "Thank you. It was truly devastating, and triggered my anxiety. The worst thing was that it happened here, in phys ed. Neal, one of those damn idiot jocks, whipped a ball at me so damn hard I fell, and well, I suppose you know the rest."  
"Mason, my brother, and Neal thought it was hilarious. They were laughing their heads off. I wanted to punch him in the face. Alana and I didn't know about the baby until it was gone," Margot said sadly.   
"So, to make me feel better Hannibal got me this ring. To ensure that I knew he would never stop loving me, no matter what happened," she put her hand on top of Hannibal's.   
"I'm sorry for assuming what it was. At my old school, lots of girls had purity rings," Will said, his hair falling in his eyes.   
"My father would much prefer it was a purity ring," she tried to joke. "My parents were in Paris when all this happened, until one of their friends called them to say that I was pregnant. By that point, I wasn't anymore. He telephoned me at Hannibal's to yell at me and I told him about the accident. I still don't know how he and my mother feel about it. I rarely see them." Her face showed no emotion after her attempt at a joke.   
Beverly had told Will that Bedelia was known as the ice queen, and he was surprised to find that he himself would describe her the same way.   
Hannibal and Bedelia were looking at one another without emotion. Will assumed they were happy, their hands were clasped together, yet neither of them let their emotions show.   
The rest of lunch went by without incident, and was, like the rest of the day, uneventful. 

When Hannibal and Bedelia walked to his Bentley after school, Bedelia held back a small laugh at all the kids who were still taking the school-bus to and from, shuddering when they saw Will Graham board his.   
Abigail hurried to meet Hannibal and Bedelia with Alana and Marot who climbed into Margot's Volkswagon. Abigail slipped into the backseat of the Bentley, trying as always to not think about what her friends had done in the car.   
Hannibal dropped Abigail off at her house before he and Bedelia sped off towards his home.   
Collapsing on the bed in his bedroom (that was sort of theirs), Bedelia finally started laughing.   
Hannibal walked to the bed and sat down, drawing Bedelia's skirt up her legs slowly. "What's so funny baby?"  
"Will Graham and his friends. They are such idiots, thinking that we're all friends now. I have plans to take all of them down," she said, flashing Hannibal her signature smirk.  
"There's my Ice Queen. I knew she was in there somewhere," Hannibal whispered hungrily, leaning down and pressing his mouth to Bedelia's.


	2. Tricks up Our Sleves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, sorry this took so long, but the subject matter has been difficult for me to write this last little while. I was going to have it up around the time of my brother's grad, but then it hit too close to home for a bit.

The next morning, Alana and Margot cornered Bedelia, Hannibal, and Abigail as they stood at Abigail’s locker. “What are the three of you plotting?” Margot asked.

“We are trying to ensure that Will Graham continues to not be a threat to my happiness,” Bedelia replied, “I don’t like the way he looks at Hannibal and judges me for things that don’t concern him. I’m sure that his friends told him all about my miscarriage so that he could bring it all back to me. Hannibal can attest to how awful my night was.”

Hannibal nodded and took her hand. “Darling, are you sure that this plan is a good one? They may not have told him. He did seem sorry for what happened. Besides, Will might be a necessary addition to our group. Crawford already likes him, and if we hitch ourselves to him, it might make our _illustrious_ principal see us in a better light.”

Bedelia sighed lightly. “Crawford is upset that Neal had to miss football last season becaue of the charges we laid against him for my hospital bills. If he sees Will as a good person, I don’t know if I can be his friend. He, and so many others around here, still insist that the miscarriage wasn’t Neal’s fault, and that I should have been more careful. Do you know what that does to me, Hannibal?”

Alana shook her head. She didn’t want to see Hannibal and Bedelia argue, and she knew when the two of them were at odds with one another. It was rare, but this seemed to be one of those times. “We can’t force Bedelia to be Will’s friend. But Bedelia, I hope you don’t mind if we continue our association with him.”

Bedelia shook her head. “I... I guess I don’t mind. Just as long as you guys don’t ditch me for him. The four of you, and Hannibal’s family are all I have left in this wold. I can’t allow him to take my family from me.”

Hannibal nodded and wrapped his arms around Bedelia, saying goodbye to their friends before leading her to french class, whispering sweet nothings in his native tongue.

 

Hannibal spent the class holding Bedelia’s hand while taking in the lesson simply by listening. He’s make notes and give them to her later.

That morning, he’d remarked how it was a bad idea for her to be around other people in this state, especially in a school environment. Yet, she had insisted on attending. Bedelia hated missing school, saying that when it came time for medical school, her anxiety wouldn’t be able to keep her home and away from the work. He admired her drive, they wanted to work together after graduating, and he knew they would be a wonderful team.

He knew that Bedelia wouldn’t let her anxiety get in the way of their future, despite her incredibly strong flight instinct when things got difficult. It had always been there, but had become worse since her miscarriage.

Bedelia turned her head and looked at Hannibal. “I love you,” she whispered quietly, “thank you for staying by my side through everything.”

“There’s nowhere I would rather be, my darling love,” he replied with a smile before gently pulling her closer to him and wrapping an arm around her.

 

At the end of class, Bedelia left the room, leading Hannibal towards the library. “You know that I actually don’t want to be here today, right?” she asked, putting her bag down and collapsing into one of the chairs at their table.

Hannibal nodded. “I know darling. And I understand completely. Do you even want to be studying right now?”

Bedelia shook her head. “You can, I won’t. I’m just going to read for now. I can’t focus on anything except for you and what’s going on in my head.” She pulled her wellread copy of _American Gods_ from her purse and opened it.

Hannibal smiled sadly and opened his notebook, taking down the notes from the french class they’d just finished. Thank goodness for his memory, else their class on verb tenses would be lost forever.

 

By the time they got back home a few hours later, Bedelia was in an even worse state.

“Mum,” she said, moving behind Simonetta and resting her chin on the older woman’s shoulder.

“Yes darling?” Simonetta asked, turning to look at her future daughter-in-law, whom she already loved as though Bedelia were her own.

“Could you get me a glass of rosé?” she inquired. “My day has been awful. I should have listened to Hannibal when he said that I should stay home today.”

Simonetta nodded. “Of course darling. Are you still upset about what happened yesterday?”

Bedelia nodded and sat down at the breakfast island. “Our friends don’t think that Will knew or meant to upset me. I still don’t know if they’re right. Anyone could have told him. He seems nice, Hannibal likes him, Crawford has Alana helping him out to adjust to the school. I just feel like if he wanted to, Will Graham could easily take my family away from me.”

Simonetta handed Bedelia her glass before taking the seat beside her with her own. “Be, darling, you’ll never lose us, you know that, right?”

Bedelia nodded. “My heart knows it, my brain knows it, but they’ve pushed that aside in fear. It’s a scary thought. What if Hannibal decided to choose Will Graham over me? I miscarried Hannibal’s baby. What if Will was mocking me for failing the man I love?” She felt tears forming in her eyes, and she didn’t want them to fall. Crying made her feel weak, but if they were to fall, she was glad it was only her and Simonetta in the room. She could always trust her future mother-in-law.

Simonetta reached over and rubbed Bedelia’s back. “We are loyal to you, and we love you. You know Edward and I adore you, you’re a second daughter to us. I know you’re scared, you’ve been through a lot in the last 14 months. But the Lecters won’t abandon you. None of us would do that to you.” She wrapped her arms around Bedelia and held her close, Bedelia finally allowing her tears to fall.

“I love you mom,” she whispered, holding on tightly.

“I love you too, darling Be,” Simonetta whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to Bedelia’s hair.

 

Later that evening, Simonetta cornered Hannibal in the music room. “Where is Bedelia?” she asked, sitting down beside him at his harpshichord.

“She left about five minutes ago to go to bed. She’s had a rough few days,” he replied in a melancholy tone, pulling his hands from the keys.

Simonetta nodded. “I know. Why didn’t you go with her?” 

“She seemed as though she wanted to be alone. I don’t want to bother or upset her,” he replied, furrowing his brow in worry. He loved Bedelia and was always worried when they weren’t together. Yet, he could understand why she didn’t want him around at the moment. He wasn’t helping the situation in the slightest.

“You know as well as I do, that Bedelia is the type of woman that when she seems like she wants to be left alone, she needs you by her side,” Simonetta remarked, stroking Hannibal’s hair gently when he dropped his head to her shoulder. “If she were my blood, I would say that she got it from me. But I think it actually comes from the unhappiness of her childhood.”

“Are you psychoanalysing Bedelia?” Hannibal asked, lifting his head and looking at his mother with wide eyes. “Because I know that wouldn’t make her very happy.”

Simonetta shook her head. “What’s more likely to make her unhappy is you staying away when she needs you the most.”

Hannibal smiled sadly, disappointed in himself. His mother was right. He was letting Bedelia down right now by not being by her side. “I ought to go to bed mother, goodnight.” He stood up and gave his mother a hug before leaving the music room, going up the stairs to the room he shared with Bedelia. The two of them needed to talk, but he wouldn’t make her do so that night if she wanted to wait. But it had to be soon, there was no way around that.

“Goodnight son,” Simonetta replied, shutting the book of sheet music with a small smile as he left. Each of them was the tonic the other needed, and she knew they were dangerous to others and themselves when they were apart.

Little did she know that they were more lethal together.


End file.
